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Jeopardy! contestant Roger Craig has the show to thank for his marriage to former champion Julia Collins.
Craig told host Ken Jennings on the Friday, February 21, episode of Jeopardy! that the show was accountable for the pair’s happiness.
“On the All-Star Games, I reconnected with Julia Collins,” he said. “I first met her in Recent York about 10 years ago, and we’re married now.”
Jennings was ecstatic. “Wow, Jeopardy power couple! Congratulations!” he exclaimed.
Craig also said the connection is “the perfect thing that’s ever happened to me.”
When asked why Collins wasn’t on the invitational tournament as well, Craig explained she wasn’t capable of attend and go against him — yet. “We might like to,” he continued. “She would like to have been here, however the logistics just didn’t work out. So hopefully next time.”
Craig first appeared on the show in 2010. He set a single-day record of $77,000 on the second day of his running, besting Jenning’s own single-day record of $75,000. After seven days on the show he lost to Jelisa Castrodale, but ultimately earned $231,200.
Collins made her debut on Jeopardy! in 2014 and won over $400,000 during a 20-day run from April 21 to May 30 that yr.
The headlines are definitely happier news for Jeopardy!. In November 2024, the show got here under fire after contestant Heather Ryan answered a sexist clue. Ryan appeared on the October 28, 2024, episode of the show and was confronted with a clue within the “Complete the Rhyming Phrase…” category that read, “Men seldom make passes…”
Ryan accomplished the sentence, answering with “girls who wear glasses.”
Jennings immediately apologized to Ryan, who was wearing glasses. In an interview published in Binghamton University’s student newspaper on November 4, Ryan said the clue was “definitely an odd selection.”
“I feel it made everybody within the audience and on stage, and Ken Jennings too, a bit of uncomfortable,” she said on the time. “It was like, ‘Oh, that was unexpected.’ Possibly we decide higher rhyming phrases in 2024. Unfortunately, there are still girls who’re [in] middle school they usually don’t need to wear their glasses they usually’re losing out on their education. So, I feel it’s significantly better to have the option to see than the rest.”
Ryan ultimately got here in second in the course of the game, losing by $1 to Ian Taylor, a food sales rep from Cleveland, Ohio. Despite the clue controversy, she assured the newspaper, “I had an awesome time. Everybody there was very welcoming.”
